MAY 2012 Hemispheres THREE PERFECT DAYS: LISBON • GREAT ADVENTURES • THE • ADVENTURES GREAT • LISBON DAYS: PERFECT THREE HEMI Q&A WITH AZIZ ANSARI !H"## P#"F#C! DA$S IN LISBON GRIPPINGGRIPPING TALES OF ADVENTURE% FROM SCALING MOUNTAINS TO DODGING HIPPOS // COMEDIANCOMEDIA AZIZ ANSARI DISCUSSES HIS UNUSUAL TALENT IN THE HEMI Q&A // CONQUERING L.A. IN THETH ROLLS-ROYCE GHOST // AMERICA&S LEAST-ACCESSIBLE GREAT RESTAURANT P001_HEMUA_0511_Cover_NEW SPINE.indd 1 13/04/2012 14:33 EDITOR IN CHIEF Joe Keohane EXECUTIVE EDITOR Sam Polcer MANAGING EDITOR Jennifer L. Johnson Daring Doers SENIOR EDITOR Jacqueline Detwiler FASHION EDITOR Nino Bauti THEY CALL IT A !SLEIGH RIDE"# and what it is, as ART DIRECTOR Christine Bower-Wright we learn in Michael Behar’s feature story on kayak ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Je! Quinn PHOTO EDITOR Jessie Adler fi shing in the remote Republic of Kiribati, is simple: CONTRIBUTING WRITERS “ge! ing towed around by a monster fi sh.” That’s Jay Cheshes, Alyssa Giacobbe, just one of the thrills in this month’s Hemispheres, Michael Kaplan, Edward Lewine, Adam K. Raymond, Cristina Rouvalis, in which we scale Yosemite’s Half Dome; cling for Grant Stoddard, Matt Thompson, dear life to a horse storming across the Argentine Chris Wright CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS pampas; evade surly hippos in Africa; and, for Je! rey Decoster, Peter James Field, good measure, try a little sand-tobogganing in Dan McCoy, Alex Nabaum, Peter Oumanski, Steve Stankiewicz China. If adrenaline isn’t your thing, we also chat EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR with comic Aziz Ansari, catch up to star-crossed Michael Keating swimmer Katie Hoff (a.k.a. the “Phemale Phelps”) U.S. EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Orion Ray-Jones and travel a long, long way for a meal that turns out to be well worth it. As always, don’t forget to Ink, 68 Jay St., Ste. 315, Brooklyn, NY 11201 download our free iPad app for video, extra photos Tel: +1 347-294-1220 Fax: +1 917-591-6247 [email protected] and assorted other online exclusives. —The Editors hemispheresmagazine.com WEBMASTER Salah Lababidi ADVERTISING WHAT DO YOU THINK? U.S. GROUP PUBLISHING DIRECTOR ? WRITE TO US! [email protected] Stephen Andrews Hemispheres Magazine! 68 Jay St.! Ste. 315! Brooklyn! NY 11201 VP STRATEGY AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Andrea Alexander ADVERTISING ACCOUNT MANAGERS Ann Blach, Robbin Gordon, Kevin Green, Gregory Hagin, Kristina Kurz, Danny Litton, Contributors Mary Anne MacLean, Lisa Nelson, Joe McHugh, Jack Miller, Je! Miller, Marshall Rubin, Scott Stone, Caryn Tanis, Ellie Whelan HAWAII Robert Wiegand EUROPE Sarah Orme ASIA Jacqueline Ho LATIN AMERICA Alejandro Salas CARIBBEAN Francesca Mariani SOUTH AMERICA Olivier Capoulade PRODUCTION MANAGER Joe Massey Tel: +1 678-553-8091 PRODUCTION CONTROLLERS Sonam Master, Stacy Willis MARKETING MANAGER Nikkole Wyrick MICHAEL BEHAR WESLEY ALLSBROOK DAVID CARR is a journalist based is an illustrator in is a New York Times in Boulder! Colo.! who Brooklyn! N.Y.! whose columnist and reporter Ink (sales), Capital Building, has written about artwork has been who focuses on media 255 E. Paces Ferry Rd., Ste. 400, adventure travel! tech published by the likes and culture. For three Atlanta, GA 30305 Tel: +1 888-864-1733 Fax: +1 917-591-6247 and the environment of the New York Times! decades he$s made Ink for Outside and Men!s McSweeney$s and a living by being CEO Je! rey O’Rourke Journal! among others. Macmillan. Working on professionally nosy! COO Hugh Godsal PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Simon Leslie Behar took up serious this month$s adventure asking all manner of HEMISPHERES is produced monthly by Ink. All material is angling for the fi rst package ("The Wild questions of all manner strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. All prices time while reporting his Bunch!# page 76) of people—and is and data are correct at the time of publication. Opinions expressed in Hemispheres are not necessarily those of the kayak fi shing feature instilled in her the hope consistently surprised LISI WOLF (BEHAR) Publisher or United Airlines, and United Airlines does not & accept any responsibility for advertising content. Neither ("Big Fish! Little Boat!# that one day she would by how the simplest United, its subsidiaries nor a! liates guarantees the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of, or otherwise endorses these page 83)! and soon face wolves! climb queries can yield the facts, views, opinions or recommendations, gives investment advice, or advocates the purchase or sale of any security discovered that "landing towering precipices! most remarkable or investment. You should always seek the assistance of a professional for tax and investment advice. Any images are a large fi sh! especially ride across subtropical answers. In this month$s supplied at the owner’s risk. Any mention of United Airlines or the use of United Airlines logo by any advertiser in this while sitting in a tiny plains and illustrate installment of Carr$s publication does not imply endorsement of that company or plastic kayak! is a her own thrilling tales Hemi Q&As (page 70)! its products or services by United Airlines. contact sport.# of adventure. it$s Aziz Ansari$s turn. STEPHEN WHITESELL (KAYAKS) 10 MAY 2012 • HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM p010_HEM0512_Contribs.indd 10 03/04/2012 09:15 BIG FISHBy Michael Behar Photographs by Stephen Whitesell LITTLE BOAT An intrepid angler heads to the remote Pacifi c island of Kiritimati to become one of the fi rst to capture a fearsome ocean predator from a kayak. HOOK SHOT Angler Allen Sansano snags a giant trevally Repeat: a kayak. HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM • MAY 2012 83 R1_p083-088_HEM0412_FISH.indd 83 12/04/2012 09:19 FROM THE DECK OF A LARGE WOODEN would shred any vessel and its occupants. I try not to consider such outrigger with a spu$ ering motor, I carefully a fate as I cast a lure bigger than my foot and wait with trepidation. slide my kayak into the Pacifi c Ocean. Se$ ing Whatever swallows this, I presume, is going to be enormous. yourself adrift at midday, nearly smack on I’ve come to Kiritimati with two kayakers. Allen Sansano, a the equator, in a 13-foot-long plastic kayak 42-year-old microchip engineer who lives in San Jose, Calif., is more than 1,000 feet above the sea floor is, trolling about a half-mile north in his yellow ’yak, as the lingo goes. by any reckoning of seamanship, an act of Sansano has paddled far-fl ung waters—British Columbia’s Nootka profound foolishness. And yet, having bid my Sound, the Sea of Cortez off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula—hunting mother ship farewell, here I am, ripening like pelagic trophies. In 2007 in Prince William Sound, Alaska, he landed a hothouse tomato beneath the high-noon a 400-pound salmon shark on the foredeck of his kayak. It’s pur- sun while trade winds buffet my 56-pound portedly the largest fi sh ever caught from such a vessel. Casting polyethylene tub. There is an island nearby, a 6-ounce popper lure precariously close to the roiling Kiritimati Kiritimati (or Christmas, a phonetic deduction breakers is David Elgas, 45, from Haleiwa, Hawaii, on Oahu’s North from Gilbertese, the regional language, which Shore. Elgas is a professional kayak guide whose company, Coastal pronounces “ti” as “s”), but even if I made the Kayak Tours, off ers excursions throughout the Hawaiian Islands. hourlong paddle to shore, landing would be Elgas claims the world kayak fi shing record for a giant barracuda. impossible. A fringe of reef rings Kiritimati, He caught the toothy 65½-pound beast near surf-mauled Ka’ena its coral heads protruding like pitchforks Point, the rugged western cusp of Oahu. through foaming 10-foot surf. Sansano and Elgas, who met in 2007 at a kayak fi shing contest Attempting to pass in Kona, Hawaii, and helped pioneer the sport, have come to Kiriti- this gauntlet mati to explore its kayak fi shing potential. We are, in fact, the fi rst kayak anglers ever to venture here. And though any big fi sh will do, our aim is to hook a giant trevally, a cra# y hunter that has long a$ racted bucket-listers to Kiritimati. The trouble has been access: Because the reef is treacherous to navi- gate, it’s not always possible to angle from a boat. And many square miles of the interior lagoon—a cerulean labyrinth of sandbars and salt fl ats—are waist-deep and passable only by wading. But with dra# s measured 84 MAY 2012 • HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM p083-088_HEM0412_FISH.indd 84 03/04/2012 09:30 in mere inches, kayaks can penetrate deep into Kiriti- mati’s untapped trevally hot spots. BOARDING PASS Hawaii o! ers the ideal jumping-o! Giant trevally can exceed 5 feet in length and top point for many Pacifi c Ocean fi shing meccas—including 100 pounds, enough to capsize a newbie kayak angler Kiritimati—and United can help get you there. As the like me. They are fi erce fi ghters that ba" le a set hook largest carrier between the mainland U.S. and Hawaii, we serve fi ve airports in the Aloha State and connect it with savagely. Off Kiritimati, they’ll dive and dart through eight mainland cities, as well as Tokyo, Guam and Majuro, the bulbous coral heads until the line severs. “Once and o! er nonstop service in 23 city pairs. Go to united.com he’s hooked he’ll run into deep water or into the rocks,” to see fl ight schedules and book your trip.